Apostle of the Void

Chapter 32: At the Forbidden Grounds, The Beginning of the Journey (5)

Sia and the goblin swordmaster charged at each other and clashed.

Sia\'s executioner\'s sword was powerful yet heavy, while the goblin\'s twin swords were nimble and fast.

Sia’s sword couldn’t keep up with the goblin\'s speed, and the goblin’s blades couldn’t penetrate Sia’s armor.

“I can’t focus only on that guy! They\'re swarming in from all sides!” Kitan shouted.

Jerome was already wildly firing his Gatling gun.

‘Guns are the spears of this age!’

Whether they were elder goblins or shaman goblins, if they were goblins, they would all be torn to shreds.

Except for the goblin swordmaster.

‘If I want to break through here, I have to take that guy down first…’

Arzen thought.

‘But with that speed, he might be faster than the void insects?’

What if he ordered a flanking attack on the void insects?

The goblin would quickly escape.

And he would keep pursuing.

‘The thought of such a guy continually chasing after us is infuriating, no matter how I think about it.’

It was best to exclude him.

In that case, he could just overwhelm the goblins with his strategies and skills that were beyond their reach.

Suddenly, Arzen darted out of the witch\'s barrier and rolled around.

“Ugh, the backlash from using miracles! It hurts! My head! Aaaah! My head, my head!”

“Ki-iiih!”

The goblin swordmaster reacted to that.

Goblins are embodiments of strength and weakness.

They have no interest in reveling in fights against the strong.

Targeting what they can kill right now is no different from the sand goblins of the Adrion continent.

As the goblin swordmaster charged at him, Arzen suddenly lifted his head and grinned.

“You’ve fallen for it, goblin swordmaster.”

“Ki-iiih?”

“Honestly, how foolish of you to challenge me, Arzen!”

The swordmaster\'s blade, which had struck at high speed, was soon split in half and flew through the air.

What was that?

What had blocked it?

No, it wasn’t blocked!

It was as if his void insect had gnawed away at the middle of the blade in that instant, cutting it apart.

“Your physical abilities are impressive, but your intelligence is that of a lowly monster!”

Dreaming of escape was out of the question.

He had already deployed eight void insects around him.

“Receive this successive finishing move! Finishing move, La Tsi Qua!”

Originally, La Tsi Qua was a miracle that summoned void insects and activated by charging forward.

‘What if I change the approach here? Instead of charging, if I set up the void insects in advance like a surround?’

By omitting all that preparation time, he could use the “storm of the void” quickly.

“Ki, kiiiih…!”

Even the elder goblin variant felt primal fear from the void insects, which was excellent information.

The goblin swordmaster leaped.

To escape the storm of the void, he concentrated solely on the jump, giving up everything else.

“Do you think it will be that easy?!”

Just then, two daggers struck his back.

“Whoa, just like Arzen said, he really showed a gap!”

It was Kitan’s dagger throw.

As he was pierced by the daggers, the goblin swordmaster slowed down, and Sia’s executioners sword came crashing down with a heavy sound.

It crushed the goblin\'s flesh, organs, and bones, embedding them into the fortress wall.

“Kitan, now that the distraction is gone, take the lead!”

Sia shouted after finishing off the goblin swordmaster.

“This way!”

After dispelling the barrier, the witch Yuz mounted her broom and followed Kitan, swallowing hard.

‘These adventurers seem so casual, but each one is unbelievably strong! No, maybe they just work well together?’

Jerome, running from the back, suddenly stopped occasionally to spray bullets from his Gatling gun.

Every time he did, a scream echoed.

The goblins were small in stature and couldn’t keep up with the stamina and speed of humans.

Thus, stopping to halt the pursuit was very effective in creating distance.

“Where\'s next? What was it called again?” Sia asked.

The witch answered, “<Brun Door>.”

Kitan, who was leading the way swinging his jungle sword, flicked a few stones off his hand.

He occasionally tossed them here and there.

Every time, a goblin pitfall trap was triggered.

“Hmm~ The method of creating and hiding traps is pretty much the same for both ancient goblins and modern ones. Is that all goblins think about?”

As they gradually entered deeper into the forest, the trees appeared stark and withered.

Why had all the leaves fallen?

The autumn leaves being trampled underfoot didn’t crunch; they seemed to have rotted and become mushy from the rain.

“This is a bit strange.”

Arzen frowned, and Jerome nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, it is strange. It’s still early autumn; the leaves shouldn’t have decayed like this yet.”

They arrived at <Brun Door> around that time.

Instead of a fortress, enormous goblins were chopping down trees.

They were goblins about the size of Sia.

At that size, it would be no exaggeration to call them giant goblins.

“Thanks to the goblin swordmaster, it’s time to recover the pride of our firearms.”

Jerome’s Gatling gun whirred furiously, spraying bullets everywhere.

The large goblins moved slowly, but that didn’t mean their bodies were tough.

The bullets concentrated on their ankles soon rendered them crippled, causing them to roll on the ground.

Kitan and Sia took turns finishing them off.

“How much farther do we have to go?”

“Just a bit more.”

No matter how ancient the goblins were, they couldn’t compete with an A-rank adventurer party.

Only goblin swordmasters could pose a threat, but such ones seemed to be quite rare.

Thus, the party delved into the depths of the barrier through <Brun Door>.

And as they headed toward <Velterek Lake>, all the goblins they encountered met the same fate.

‘This is a complete honey pot.’

As the end came into sight, the party members exchanged smiles that conveyed this meaning.

‘With this level of difficulty and this much contribution, you can’t easily find this anywhere!’

However… the moment they arrived at <Velterek Lake>, they realized something was off.

“A lake…?”

“Is there really a lake in a place like this…?”

“But the water quality is like some filthy sewage, and it’s so dark green…?”

The lake\'s water was indeed putrid enough to be called rotten. A foul odor wafted up.

Yet… there was something that starkly contrasted with that horrible stench and color.

‘A dazzlingly bright formation of pure light.’

In other words, a magic circle was rotating above it.

“Seven layers? A seven-layer magic circle?!”

Seven layers meant it was a level seven magic.

Only a wizard who had ascended to the rank of a great sage could wield level seven magic.

It was the pinnacle of magical arts.

“Only three beings have ever reached the seventh level! The first wizard, Emithsa Page, the dragonborn Rain Ludwig, and the storm sorcerer Setsunen!”

If Sia knew that knowledge, she could roughly guess the power of that magic circle.

“But that seven-layer magic circle… looks like it’s about to break apart!”

At that moment, Jerome saw something lodged in the center of the magic circle.

“Is it because of that? I can\'t tell which came first—the cause or the effect.”

The dimension above was torn apart.

It was as if a living creature was weeping and screaming… such a crack had formed.

Arzen was alarmed. It resembled a void crack.

‘A dimensional rift?’

When using the power of the void, creatures from the void would emerge from such gaps.

However, from that place, Elder Goblins were continuously pouring out.

Then, Yuz looked down at the lakeshore and covered her mouth.

“Oh no, this can’t be… I didn’t think it would come to this.”

There were corpses.

No, there were traces of death that had even left no corpses behind.

A noble fabric, a silk robe of exquisite quality, lay soaked in a puddle of dried blood.

“…!”

At that moment, Arzen didn’t focus on the fabric’s quality but rather on the signs of death.

The area around it had caved in like a pit.

It was evidence that an abnormal entity was nearby.

“That thing, we need to seal that crack!”

Then Yuz snapped back to reality and shouted.

“How?!”

At Sia’s words, Yuz quickly thought.

“If we can pull out that thing lodged in the center of the magic circle… I don’t know for sure, but…”

“Then what should we do?!”

“But the source of the contamination is definitely that! The lake used to be crystal clear, and there was nothing like this before!”

Suddenly, the world began to shake.

Even the surface of the lake rippled, causing water to overflow onto the shore.

Everyone was horrified.

The sound, the vibration—it was hard to describe the shock they felt when they turned to see what was approaching.

“What is that?!”

“A goblin?”

“It looks like a goblin, but why is it so huge?!”

The goblin appeared to be about seven feet tall, with a build that made it look several times larger.

He had encased his entire body in a suit of armor made from interwoven iron plates, so the weight must be immense.

Jerome pulled the trigger all the way, but…

The iron bullet dented the armor, but it didn’t reach a fatal blow in time.

“Runes of the air that hover above, unfold here as my barrier! Ijuge!”

Yuz stepped forward in an instant and unleashed her barrier.

The monster swung its fist with all its might!

The barrier engaged in a brief struggle with the fist before shattering into shards of light.

“Is that a crazy goblin or what?!”

Sia stepped up.

With her right hand gripping the hilt of her sword and her left hand pressing against the blade, she took a complete defensive stance.

Just as she thought she could block the goblin’s attack… the next moment, she was sent flying far away.

“Sia lost in a strength contest?!”

Kitan exclaimed in surprise.

“What the heck is this thing?!”

Jerome shouted.

“It’s the Goblin King! The king of the ancient Elder Goblin kingdom!” Yuz replied.

At that moment, Arzen noticed the wasp sitting on his shoulder fluttering its wings.

‘The wasp is reacting… does that mean?’

Could it mean that, like the giant slime, there was a possibility it could be a universal key?

‘Oh ho.’

Arzen immediately licked his lips in anticipation.

Just then, Kitan threw himself and knocked Arzen down.

The King Goblin’s fist passed right above them, leaving a massive pressure wave in its wake.

“A goblin king? You must be joking!”

Arzen dramatically opened the scripture and pressed his forehead.

There was no particular meaning to the action; it was just for show.

In the world of adventurers, style is important.

“Just what are you, a king? Then let me make you howl like a king from now on! Kaz to Ackturas!”

Twenty-four void insects burst forth from the dimensional rift.

Vwooooom!

Even the King Goblin seemed to hesitate for a moment.

‘With my current power, it’s impossible to fully deploy all 30 units.’

But still, this was a rapid service sending a mere goblin to the afterlife.

‘I’ll convert them all into fused entities.’

He had learned something valuable while facing the giant slime.

Against an enemy with such sturdy armor, it was right to utilize fused entities.

The formation would consist of four front units and six middle units.

“Su Ja Heros! Su Ja Kunia!”

In the twisted effects of the dimension, the void insects intertwined into one.

They were reborn as a beautiful form specialized solely for slaughter.

“Are you ready to die, King—”

“—King? King Goblin? Ah-ha, ahahaha, ahahahahahahaha!”

At that moment.

Sia, who had been flung away by the recoil of blocking the punch, began to laugh.

As she got up from the ground, she said, “You’re strong enough to be called a king? Then it’ll be fun to let loose!”

The malice leaking through her bandages was thicker than usual. A red haze was visible.

Sia planted her executioners sword into the ground.

And as she began to unwrap the bandages she had always tightly bound herself with, a surge of malice surged forth.

“……!”

As the bandages came undone, Sia’s arms were revealed.

They were covered in an incomprehensible array of runes and spells… inscribed so densely it was grotesque.

‘What the hell is that…?’

To Arzen\'s eyes, it seemed like Sia had transformed into an entirely different person.

‘She’s acting like she’s drunk on blood!’

A warrior of slaughter!

Only battle filled her vision, and only the stench of blood and death stimulated her senses…!

She had become a berserker!

“KEEIIIIIIT!”

The King Goblin’s focus—no, it was more accurate to say his attention—was completely diverted to Sia.

Sia charged forward…

Soon, half of the King Goblin’s left arm was severed along with the armor, and a fierce scream erupted.

‘So fast!’

Sia was moving nearly twice as fast as usual.

Not only her speed had increased.

It felt like her strength and power had been purely amplified.

‘On par with that Elder Goblin King!’

No, she was gaining the upper hand against the King Goblin.

“KEEEEEEHHHH!”

The King Goblin raised his head and let out a roar.

This wasn’t a battle cry exchanged between predators clashing.

After all, goblins had no sense of honor in combat.

Soon, the ground shook, and an army of goblins appeared.

“Cheh…!”

Arzen divided his void insect assault unit to the left and right, targeting the King Goblin.

Two front units and three middle units.

The void insects were assigned to deal with the overwhelming numbers of enemies instead of the King Goblin.

“Wasp, don’t hold back, just sweep them away. I’ll focus on support.”

That should be enough.

Even a single void insect could easily slaughter a dozen enemies during its summoning time.

As the indiscriminate massacre of the void insects halted the advance of the Elder Goblins, Arzen took a golden potion from his pocket.

‘A potion used to urgently recover divine power!’

His head spun, and a tingling sensation spread through his tongue.

At the same time, he felt the vitality turning within his body.

‘With this amount… I should be able to exert my strength one more time.’

Ah, this cool yet warm sensation.

It was time to return to being Arzen, the healer who traversed the celestial realm of adventurers.

“《Flag of Twilight》.”